With the year almost behind us, it's hard not to look back at 2023 with conflicted feelings. It was a fantastic year for gamers at home with great tentpole releases from PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo, and some excellent indies, too. For years to come, we will all likely argue that 2023 was one of the best – if not the best – year for games. But it was also a terrible year for the people who make games, with more than 10,000 developers laid off, studios closed, and more.
Between big video game releases, a heartbreaking amount of layoffs, record-breaking acquisitions and box office reports, and more, 2023 contained plenty of news stories that had us talking for weeks, speculating on the future of the industry, and reshaping how we view game development. Here are the 10 biggest gaming news stories of 2023.
10
PlayStation Cancels Naughty Dog’s Last Of Us Multiplayer Project, A First-Party Rarity
In June 2022, Naughty Dog revealed that its new Last of Us multiplayer project would be a standalone title. In May of this year, the studio announced it needed more time for the game while also teasing its work on a new single-player experience. But then, a few months later, Naughty Dog laid off at least 25 developers, with reports stating the Last of Us multiplayer project was "on ice." Between the layoffs and reports about the game's developments, players realized this game might be further out than expected.
Naughty Dog surprised many earlier this month, though, when it announced it was ceasing development on its online multiplayer Last of Us game. In hindsight, this isn't the most shocking development, but to see an announced PlayStation first-party game go through a public cancelation like this is extremely rare – first-party games get canceled, but usually, before the game reaches the point of being a publicly announced project – and that's why it was one of the biggest stories of the year.
9
PlayStation Boss Steps Down, Xbox Boss Steps Up
Both PlayStation and Xbox had tremendous years. The former launched PSVR2, its PlayStation 5 Slim, and its remote handheld device, PlayStation Portal, and it had great releases like Marvel's Spider-Man 2 and God of War Ragnarök's Valhalla DLC. Xbox, via Microsoft, acquired Activision Blizzard, launched Starfield, released Forza Motorsport, surprise-dropped Hi-Fi Rush, and more.
Both of these companies also went through some significant executive shake-ups. PlayStation head Jim Ryan announced in September that he was leaving the company after over 30 years at Sony. He was appointed Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CFO in 2018 and will officially depart from the position and company next spring.
A month later, Microsoft went through its own reorganization, with Microsoft corporate vice president Sarah Bond being promoted to Xbox president and Microsoft head of studios and corporate vice president Matt Booty becoming president of game content and studios. Chief marketing officer Chris Capossela announced he was stepping down from Microsoft after 32 years, with Microsoft executive vice president and commercial chief marketing officer Takeshi Numoto now holding the role. Elsewhere in the reorganization, Yusuf Mehdi was promoted to Microsoft executive vice president and consumer chief marketing officer. Microsoft’s consumer sales organization has been moved to the Microsoft Gaming CEO's team, led by Ami Silverman.
It's rare to see such massive executive shake-ups within PlayStation and Xbox. But both companies experienced big changes in 2023, and it was hard to ignore and speculate how these might impact the future.
8
Video Game Adaptations Break Out Into The Mainstream
Look, there are a good bit of great video game adaptations throughout the years – Game Infomer's very own Blake Hester claims there are five good Resident Evil movies – but it's hard not to look at 2023 and call it the best year for video game adaptations.